Seat covers made of plastic film are put on or pulled over a vehicle seat to protect the seat from dirtying by workers or other people getting in contact with the seat. Such seat covers are known in garages if a repair or an inspection of the vehicle has to be performed. Even during the first mounting or assembly of a vehicle in an automobile factory, there is the danger of undesired dirtying or harming the seats. This danger of dirtying even begins at the manufacturer of the vehicle seat, and during transport to the automobile factory. This danger remains present when putting the seats to conveyor equipment leading to the assembly line. Next, the vehicle seats have to be placed into the chassis of the vehicle. During this mounting operation, a large number of workers one after the other get in contact with the seats. Finally, the assembled vehicle has to be driven off the assembly line and onto trucks or railway wagons for transport, and the vehicle has to be moved several times at the dealer prior to sale and delivery to the individual customer.
Vehicle seats may get at least 50 times or more in contact with workers and other persons from the manufacture of the seat by the provider to the delivery of the vehicle to the customer, so that there is a great danger of dirtying the seats. To counteract this danger of dirtying the seats, seat covers made of plastic film are known in the art. These seat covers are often put on the seat at the place of the seat manufacturer, but at the latest at the place of the vehicle manufacturer. These seat covers are put on the seats, in particular the seat of the driver, and they are removed before delivery to the customer of the automobile. Such seat covers for new cars do not substantially differ from such seat covers which are used during repair or inspection of the vehicle. They may be made of a comparatively thick plastic film even lasting during heavier use.
A seat cover for protecting a motor vehicle seat is known from German Patent Number DE 42 10 232 C2. The seat cover includes two pockets in its end regions. The seat pocket serves to receive a portion of the seat cushion, and the backrest pocket is adapted to receive a portion of the backrest of the seat. The seat cover includes a front layer being designed to be longer than the sum of the usable length of the backrest and the seat cushion. Due to the long design of the front layer, it is possible to fold the front layer in this region generating a fixing fold, and to clamp this fixing fold in the gap between the backrest and the seat cushion. The fixing fold is closed on both sides of the seat. The fixing fold mainly serves to fix the seat cover in the region of the gap. The fold is clamped or jammed by the tension being usually present between the backrest and the seat cushion. This is advantageous, since the portion of the front layer protecting the backrest and the portion of the front layer covering the seat cushion are held closer and tighter on the seat. There is the additional advantage that the danger of an undesired displacement of the seat cover is reduced, in particular in the region of the gap, so that there are almost no surfaces of the seat which are not protected by the seat cover.
But there are also motor vehicle seats in which the gap between the seat cushion and the backrest has dimensions of several centimeters, so that a clamping or jamming effect of a seat cover to be mounted on the seat does not occur. Even if a clamping effect does occur, there is no great maximum force which can be transmitted by this clamping connection. During the assembly of the motor vehicle seat, this force in the clamping gap can be easily exceeded, so that the fixing fold slides out off the gap, and its function of fixing the seat cover in the desired position is no longer fulfilled.
Such a clamped or jammed fixing fold has no sealing effect for the seat, and it does not provide a proof of the motor vehicle seat being the original seat. There is always the danger of the seat cover sliding out of place or even being removed. It is even possible that workers remove the seat cover since they do not like to sit on the plastic material, especially during summertime and corresponding high temperatures in the factory. Consequently, there is a great danger of the seat getting dirty.
Another seat cover for protecting a motor vehicle seat is known from German Patent Number DE 196 45 999 C1. The seat cover includes two pockets in its end regions. The seat pocket serves to receive a portion of the seat cushion, and the backrest pocket is adapted to receive a portion of the backrest of the seat. The rear layer partially forming the seat pocket includes a protecting member being formed by a cutout. The protecting member has a U-shape, and it covers the sides portions of the seat cushion. The front layer of the seat cover includes a protecting element for covering the joint regions of the seat at each side of the gap being located between the backrest and the seat cushion. The seat cover is based on the idea to provide the seat pocket and other elements of the seat cover with an improved protecting function. For this reason, the rear layer partially forming the seat pocket includes a protecting member extending around the seat cushion and covering the seat cushion in a U-shape in the lateral and in the lower region of the seat cushion. The protecting member does not only fulfil a protecting function, but it at the same time improves the fit of the seat pocket in the mounted position of the seat cover on the motor vehicle seat. The danger of the seat cover sliding out of place, and of the seat getting dirty is partially reduced.